


A Perfect World

by airamcg



Series: 100-Word Drabbles [10]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: 100-word Drabbles, Aftermath, Drabble, Drabble Collection, F/F, Family, Gen, Other, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Psychological Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-27
Updated: 2017-07-10
Packaged: 2018-11-19 18:39:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11319291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/airamcg/pseuds/airamcg
Summary: Everybody was happy and nobody died!





	1. Steven

Since their last mission, Steven can’t stop worrying about his family. Garnet keeps wandering the boardwalk, as if looking for someone but never quite finding them. Amethyst just stares at the bubbled gems for hours on end. And, whenever he closes his eyes, Steven feels his mother’s last kiss on his cheek...

It hurts.

It hurts that everyone’s hurting. Especially Pearl.

She’s been avoiding Steven. She can’t even bear to  _ look  _ at him without freaking out.

Did he do something wrong? He doesn’t know. It  _ feels  _ like he did, though.

It feels like they  _ all  _ did something wrong. Especially Pearl.

 

 

 


	2. Garnet

Garnet Sees the plate shatter before it does, but it’s already too late to save it by then.

Just a slip of hand, nothing more. No big deal.

But Pearl trembles, staring at the shards as if she has committed some heinous crime.

None of them have returned quite right from that last mission, not even Garnet. Memories haunt them all.

Garnet takes Pearl’s hands, easing her tightly clenched fists open. She glances at Amethyst, wordlessly asking her to take care of Pearl.

As Amethyst leads Pearl away, Garnet picks up the broken pieces and finishes washing the dishes, alone.

 

 

 


	3. Amethyst

Amethyst doesn’t talk, doesn’t say anything to make Pearl feel better.

There’s nothing she  _ can _ say.

She knows what it’s like, though: to miraculously have that one thing you’ve always wanted, only to have it yanked away just as you’re getting used to it.

In that other world, Amethyst was bigger, stronger— no, she only became how she was  _ supposed _ to be.

(None of it was real, though.)

Pearl broke them out, got them back. Nobody knows how, or at what cost. Nobody knows what she went through, because she wouldn’t talk about it.

No, Pearl wouldn’t talk  _ at all. _

 

 


	4. Pearl

Things weren’t supposed to be this way.

Everything should’ve gone back to normal, to how they were before that mission. She got everyone out, didn’t she? Her family was safe, she made sure of that.

They’re _safe._

(...but not from her.)

She can’t look at Steven.

She can’t look at any of them, not after what she did.

If she was capable of doing that, then…

She stares blankly at nothing, remembering everything. The illusion was so vivid, it felt all too real.

Especially the feel of gem shards in her hands, before everything faded back into the real world.

 

 

 


	5. A Perfect World

It was a perfect world—

No diamonds, no masters. 

No corruption.

All her friends were alive and well. Garnet was always hanging out with Bismuth, Biggs, Crazy Lace, Snowflake, and all the other Crystal Gems. Amethyst would join them sometimes, happy to have friends as tall and beefy as her. Steven went with them too, clinging to his mother whenever they did…

That’s right; Rose was  _ alive _ .

It was the perfect world, after all.

—and she destroyed it with her own two hands.

Because the only way to break a lotus-eater illusion is to shatter what you desire the most.

 

 

 

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [A Reject Town](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14166549) by [Crooked_Mantis](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crooked_Mantis/pseuds/Crooked_Mantis)




End file.
